Featured

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump’s Wall, like most Trump fantasies, is more symbolic than real, which is why he can never remember what its shape would be or what to call it. The fact is that it is just a projection of his racist anxieties, something standing between him and the rapists, murderers, and […]

Arms Sales

“Why Should we believe anything You Say?” How Ilhan Omar Nailed Elliot Abrams for Iran-Contra Lies

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Ilhan Omar (D-MN) grilled Elliot Abrams yesterday, holding his feet to the fire about his having lied to Congress (to two counts of which which he pleaded guilty) and about his support for far right wing forces in Central America responsible for massacres (forces Abrams characterizes as “democratic,” confusing oppressive […]

Climate Crisis

The Age of Environmental Breakdown: We need the Green New Deal Now!

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Laurie Laybourn-Langton, Lesley Rankin and Darren Baxter Februhe at the Institute for Public Policy Research in Britain are warning in a new study as frantically as they can that “the extent, severity, pace and closing window of opportunity to avoid potentially catastrophic outcomes has led many scientists to conclude that […]

Featured

Iran: ‘If US attacks us, Tel Aviv is Toast;’ Israel: ‘You do that and Iran is Toast’

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Aftab reports that the head of the political bureau of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, and a liaison to clerical Leader Ali Khamenei, Brig.-Gen. Yadollah Javani, gave a speech Monday in which he said that Iran has nothing to fear from the United States. He also said that that last […]

Featured

Senate guts 1st Amendment to Guard Israel from Boycott, but Ilhan Omar can’t Bring up AIPAC

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has stirred controversy by replying to scurrilous statements of her Republican opponents in Congress by suggesting that they are shilling for anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim lobbies that back the right wing Likud government of Israel to the hilt because they receive campaign contributions from the Israel lobbies. It's […]

Climate Change

Climate Emergency: Australian Judge Strikes down Coal Mine in Part because of its Carbon Emissions

Juan Cole

Informed Comment (Ann Arbor) – In what is likely to be the first of many such rulings, an Australian court has ruled against a coal mine in part on grounds of the environmental damage that burning coal does by contributing to the climate emergency. Burning coal releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, a powerful greenhouse […]

Featured

Iran’s Khamenei: ‘Death to America’ means US Rulers, not American Public

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The clerical Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, said Friday on the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution of 1979, that Iran has good relations with all the countries of the world. He observed that he does not urge breaking relations with any European country. “The slogan ‘Death to America,’” he said, […]

Featured

Did the National Enquirer blackmail Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to Protect the Saudi Crown Prince?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – David Pecker’s attempt to blackmail Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos would not ordinarily attract my eye. Except for this paragraph: “And sometimes Mr. Pecker mixes it all together: “After Mr. Trump became president, he rewarded Mr. Pecker’s loyalty with a White House dinner to which the media executive brought a guest […]

Climate Change

Last 5 Years Hottest on Record: NASA, NOAA; & World Hotter than any time in 120,000 years

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The National Space and Aeronautics Agency (NASA) and its sister agency NOAA report that the past 5 years are the hottest on record. World-wide temperature records began being kept from about 1880. Global heating proceeds differently in each area of the globe. The real heat wave in comparative terms was […]